Ian Mitchell Croft''Lincolnshire County Council: 77 Members of the Council''
(Lincolnshire County Council, 8 June 2005), p. 5. Retrieved 12 November 2017. (died 28 September 2016) was a

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

local politician who served as Leader of

Lincolnshire County Council Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire an ...

from 2002 to 2005.

Career

A resident of Lound, near Bourne, Croft was first elected onto the

for the Bourne Castle division in May 1985. After serving as Chairman of the Highways and Planning Committee, Croft was the council's Conservative Leader between 2002 and 2005,"Agenda item 4"
Minutes of the Extraordinary Meeting of the Lincolnshire County Council (20 October 2016), p. 17. Retrieved 12 November 2017. following the resignation of

Jim Speechley William James Speechley (1936/7 – 19 April 2021) was a British politician. He was a Conservative Party councillor in Crowland and leader of the Lincolnshire County Council. He was appointed a CBE in 1992, which was later stripped after his 2004 ...

, who was later jailed for misconduct in a public office, after not declaring a conflict of interest that land he owned would increase significantly in value as a result of a new bypass road he had promoted. In March 2005, Croft himself resigned as leader (his entire executive board also resigned their positions) following an Audit Commission report which called the Council's leadership "weak" and "unlikely to improve without help"; two Lincolnshire Members of Parliament, Conservatives

Edward Leigh Sir Edward Julian Egerton Leigh (born 20 July 1950) is a British Conservative Party politician who has served as a Member of Parliament (MP) since 1983. Leigh has represented Gainsborough, Lincolnshire in the House of Commons since 1983 (rep ...

and

Douglas Hogg Douglas Martin Hogg, 3rd Viscount Hailsham, Baron Hailsham of Kettlethorpe (born 5 February 1945), is a British politician and barrister. A member of the Conservative Party he served in the Cabinet as Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and ...

, called for his resignation, while the ''

Lincolnshire Echo The ''Lincolnshire Echo'' is a weekly British regional newspaper for Lincolnshire, whose first edition was on Tuesday 31 January 1893, and is published every Thursday. It is owned by Reach PLC and it is distributed throughout the county. The ...

'' devoted five pages to the report's findings. The following March, Croft, who had been re-elected a county councillor despite his resignation as Leader, was banned from being a County Councillor for 15 months for "breaching the code of conduct for people in public office" by the Standards Board of England and Wales; the Board heard that Croft sought revenge against the council's Chief Executive, David Bowles, who testified against Speechley. Croft was found to have "consistently undermined Mr Bowles in the media" and that he had "failed to support Mr Bowles on several occasions", including an incident in 2003 when he wrote to the Council's solicitors asking them to terminate Bowles's contract. Bowles left his post in 2004 arguing that his job had "become impossible". Croft was therefore forced to resign from the council in March 2006 and did not sit on it again. He died, aged 81, on 28 September 2016, and was survived by his wife Jean, a son and a granddaughter."Ian Croft"
''Rutland and Stamford Mercury'', 7 October 2016. Retrieved 12 November 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Croft, Ian People from South Kesteven District Conservative Party (UK) councillors 2016 deaths People expelled from public office Members of Lincolnshire County Council Leaders of local authorities of England